Member Article

Bingo Association improves underage gambling prevention with ACCS

Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) has partnered with the Bingo Association to implement an industry-leading age verification (AV) programme across more than 440 establishments.

From February 2020, the trade association for all licensed bingo operators in Great Britain will initiate a test purchasing exercise to prove that its members conform to the highest industry standards of underage gambling prevention.

ACCS ensures that robust age check practices are followed by providers of age-restricted goods, content and services. This is achieved through a combination of robust processes, custom built technology and a team of fully qualified trading standards and audit professionals.

The Bingo Association recognised that ACCS had the experience, specialist resources and expertise in place to support its age verification testing strategy, making them an ideal partner. Furthermore, ACCS would be able to organise and deliver the tests while also providing advice, highlighting problem areas and creating tailored solutions.

Test Purchasers will visit each association member to check that its establishment complies with the relevant legislation while also assessing its due diligence and monitoring activities. The tests themselves will be undertaken in accordance with the internationally recognised standard ISO 17065:2012.

The test reports that will subsequently be compiled are recognised by the UK Gambling Commission and international regulators as evidence that all legal requirements have been met. The data that ACCS gathers as part of the tests will also help the Bingo Association to perform statistical analysis that pinpoints how its age verification processes can be further improved.

Tony Allen, founder and CEO of ACCS, said: “The Bingo Association knows that age-checking in gambling establishments has to be carefully considered and rigorously assessed - however they’re also aware that doing this properly requires a lot of specialist considerations and knowledge.

“Our extensive experience of age check verification processes and legislation made us the ideal partner, as we could help to prove that the Bingo Association’s members are meeting the very highest standards of underage gambling prevention.

“The testing and reporting that we’ve put in place will not only demonstrate the diligence of each venue, but it will also help to improve and refine the Bingo Association’s age checking procedures moving forward.”

Paul Swindon, Head of Governance & Compliance at the Bingo Association, said: “We are delighted to be working with Age Check Certification Scheme Ltd to manage the age verification scheme on behalf of The Bingo Association, to test whether our members operate an effective and robust AV system within their own businesses, in strict accordance with the provisions of the license conditions and codes of practise (LCCP).

“They also help us to achieve our wider obligation and social responsibility strategy to prevent underage gambling within the licensed Bingo industry. It is vitally important that our AV partner is independent, professionally qualified and completely impartial and ACCS quite literally ticks all the right boxes.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Age Check Certification Scheme .